Activating Group and ACL Editors

You must activate the "Advanced" checkbox in the Settings dialog (Configure → Settings) in order to see the Group and ACL editors for a channel.

Groups

To edit or create a new group, right click on the root channel and click "Edit" (usually you want to create groups from the root channel for easier management). Now click the "Groups" tab. You can now either select a group or add another one by clicking in the blank box called "Group", typing the group name and pressing enter. Now that the group is selected, add the users to the group by typing their registered name in the bottom left box and clicking "Add."

Groups are tied to a specific channel, but can also be inherited by subchannels, when the flag "Inheritable" is set in the parent channel and "Inherit" is set in the subchannel (usually you want these flags to be set). This opens a convenient way to administer channels and their ACLs; set up the ACLs on the top of the channel tree that should have a similar privilege structure, and just change the group memberships on subchannels.

For each channel, a group has 3 pieces of data:
1. "Members": the list of players to add to the group (i.e. because they are not members of the same group in the parent channel already),
2. "Inherited members": the list of members inherited from the same group in the parent channel and
3. "Excluded members": the list of inherited members to remove from the group.

Note: Only registered players can be added to groups.

Example

Let's take a practical example, the admin group. Every time a player makes a channel, he is automatically added to its admin group. This doesn't automatically give him any privileges, it just marks him as a member of that group, however Murmur's default installation installs an ACL that grants the admin group the Write ACL (all access) permission.

In a structure like this:

Root

A

B

C

D

player "Big Boss" is the only Member of the admin group in Root. In channel A, player "BossA" and in channel B, "BossB" are added to the Members of admin,

In the channels Root, A and B the flags Inherit and Inheritable are set for the admin group (default setting in Murmur). A player being a member of that group in any of these channels thus is an inherited member in a subchannel. So the total list of members in channel B is "Big Boss, BossA, BossB". The convenience of this system is that if we later add "Super Boss" to admin in Root, he'll automatically be in the admin group of the channels A and B.

Let's move on, and say that player "BossC" is in the Members list in channel C, but here admin is not marked as inherit. This means that "Big Boss" is not in the admin group and any changes for admin in Root will not be seen here. Channel D will inherit the list from C, unless C also marks admin as not inheritable.

ACL

ACL (Access Control Lists) are all attached to a specific channel. A channel can specify if it wants to inherit the ACL on the parent, but it cannot specify which; it's a all or nothing deal. ACL are evaluated in order, from top to bottom along the chain of channels. To add or remove an ACL, right click on the channel you wish to change ACL's on and click "Edit ACL." Once you add an ACL, you set the group the ACL defines by typing it's name in the bottom left box labeled "Group." If you just want to set an ACL for a specific user, leave the Group box blank and type the name of the user in the box labeled "User ID."

For each entry, either a user or a group will match. A user must be a specific, registered user, while a group can be any group valid in the channel the ACL is defined on. Note that group membership is evaluated in the channel the ACL is executed in, which is important for inherited ACLs. If a group begins with a !, it's membership is inverted, and if it begins with a ~, it is evaluated in the context of the channel the ACL is defined on (and not the active channel).

all

Everyone

auth

All authenticated users

in

All users inside current channel

out

All users outside current channel

For each entry, permissions are either allowed or denied; in case of a conflict the last entry takes precedence. Remember that all entries are evaluated in order, so if you have the following set of entries:

@all deny speak

@all allow speak

Then everyone will be allowed to speak. On the other hand

@all allow speak

@all deny speak

Will deny speak from everyone.

Each entry can be marked as either applying in the current channel, in subchannels or both. Most of the time you want both. Remember that for an entry to be applied on a subchannel, you have to apply it to subchannels and allow inheritance in the subchannels.

The @sub group

There is a special group called sub, which just like all has a special meaning. Sub is used as sub,a,b,c, where a is the minimum number of common parents, and b and c restrain the path depth:

b is the minimum and c the maximum path length, measured from the channel referred by a.

If any of those parameter is missing, then there will be no minimum/maximum path length.

It's somewhat complex, but also rather powerful. For example, assume the following tree:

Root

A

A1

Sub1

Sub2

A2

A3

B

B1

B2

Let's deny enter to all on Root to start with. Then, on A, we define

@~sub,0,1 +enter

First of all, this ACL will be evaluated in the context of the defining channel, since the group starts with ~.

The first parameter (0) indicates how many additional elements of the path name must match. A zero means we require a match up to this point. This means that any player in a channel under the path Root.A will match (so in all sub-channels).

If this first parameter had been 1 the evaluation would start one level below Root.A, where the ACL was defined. The second parameter with value 1 indicates all sub-channels (thus now of Root.A.*) are allowed to enter. So we would be allowed to enter Sub1 and Sub2.

Setting this to positive values only makes sense for pinned groups (with the ~).

The second parameter requires the path of the evaluated channel to be at least one element longer than the path of the channel of the ACL. So this rule will match in anything that starts with Root.A and has at least one more element.

To sum it up; this rule allows anyone in one of A's descendants (but no A itself) to join A or any of its descendants (we assume subchannels inherit the rule).

If we don't use the ~, then it will allow people in any of A descendants to go up (ie, from Sub1 to A1 or A but not the other way) or, in other words, allow people in the descendant of a channel (any depth) to enter it.

Let's add a new rule to A1:

@sub,-1,0 +link

This allows anyone that's in the parent (equal path up to -1 elements (the first parameter)) or any of the siblings (path length equal (the 0 parameter)) to link to this channel.

And finally, just to show how messed up it can get, let's add this on B:

@~sub,-1,2,2 +enter

This lets anyone that's currently in a descendant of Root (B's parent) and has a path length of exactly 2 (length of Root.B -1 + 2) join, so this rule would match someone in A1, but not A or Sub1.

Channel Passwords and Access Tokens

Beginning with Mumble 1.2, it is now possible to set access on channels based on "tokens" or "passwords". Passwords are stored in a tokens list in the client for each server, with the client using them as needed. From this point forward, we will refer to channel passwords as "tokens" instead, for clarity.

Configuring an Access Token

Access Tokens are configured by creating special groups, which consist of the token prefixed by a pound symbol. For example a token called "letmein" corresponds to a group called #letmein.

The Channel Editor dialog box contains a field called "password". Entering "letmein" in the password field will automatically create a token group called #letmein, then by default will deny "Enter" access to @all and allow "Enter" access to users in the group #letmein, which will consist of any user who has that token in their token list.

To create token groups manually, first enable the Advanced Channel Editor. Then Edit a channel and go to the ACL tab. On the bottom of the ACL list, select the @all entry and check the "Deny Enter" permissions box. Now click "Add", and in the "Group" combobox at the bottom write #letmein and press enter. Now check the "Allow Enter" permissions box, and click OK to dismiss the editor.

Using an Access Token

You may add access tokens to your client by selecting "Access Tokens" from the "Server" menu. Click add, type the token (e.g. "letmein") and click "OK". It should take effect immediately, granting you whatever permissions are associated with that token group. Remember that tokens are passwords, so treat them as such; pick a token name that is unique and hard to guess.

Permission Definitions

Write

This gives total control over the channel, including the ability to edit ACLs. This privilege implies all other privileges.

Traverse

Without this privlege, a player will be unable to access the channel or any subchannels in any way, regardless of privileges in the subchannel. Don't deny this unless you really know what you're doing; you can probably achieve the effect you want by denying a player the Enter privlege.

Enter

Allows player to enter channel. Even without this privilege, a player can be moved into the channel by a player with Move/Kick.

Speak

Allows player to speak in channel. For linked channels, only players with Speak privilege in the destination channels will be heard. This can be used to set up a hierarchy of linked channels where all players can hear all the leader of each group, but normal players will not be propageated outside their channel. This way, players will hear someone else is talkig to the group leader and (hopefully) stop talking for a short while.

If a player joins a channel he does not have Speak privilege in, he will be suppressed by the server, and will be unable to speak until someone unmutes him.

Mute / Deafen

Allows a player to mute or deafen another player. Note that mute status will follow a player until he is either manually unmuted or reconnects to the server.

Move / Kick

Allows a player to move another player to another channel or kick them off the server. Unless the target player has Enter privileges in the channel he's being moved to, Move privileges is required in both channels.

Make Channel

Allows a player to make a subchannel in the current channel. The player will automatically be added to the admin group in the new channel, so make the inheritable ACLs give the privileges you desire.

Make Temporary Channel

Allows a player to make a temporary subchannel in the current channel, which will automatically be deleted when the last user leaves it. The creator will automatically be moved into the channel after creating it.

Link Channel

Allows a player to link or unlink, as well as push-to-link a channel. Unlinking requires Link privilege in either channel, and linking requires Link privilege in both.

AltSpeak

Allows a player to speak in channel if he is holding the Alt Push-To-Talk key (can be configured in the Shortcuts tab of the options window). It works as Speak for linked channels, etc. This may be used to broadcast to a hierarchy of channels without having to link to them.

Examples

Group of servers with FPS game

In this example, we assume we have a group of public servers running FPS games. Each game has 2 competing sides, and each side consists of one or more squads. We want a hierarchy such as this:

Servers

"Servername"

Team 1

Squad 1

Squad 2

...

Team 2

Squad 1

...

...

...

Let's assume we have a small script linked with qstat that puts the player in the channel of the right side, and once in there we want to give them the ability to switch between squad channels and link at will. However, we do not want them to gain access to the channels of the other side.

This is actually a very straightforward implementation; on the "Servers" channel, define an empty group called players. Then, add the following acls:

@all deny enter

@~sub,2,2 allow enter, allow link

The first rule denies enter privilege to all players, and the second rule allows anyone within a hierarchy at least 2 elements down from "Servers" to move and link at will. In practice, this means that once a player is inside "Team 1", he can move freely about in there but can't switch to the other team or another server subchannel.

MMORPG Raid

Assume this setup:

Root

Raid

Healers

Tanks

Damage Dealers

Wussards and other pets

The desire is to have one leader of each group, plus a few people as raid leaders.

Set this up as follows: In "Raid", create a group called "groupleaders". Put the leader of each group in this group. In the same channel define "raidleaders", and put the raidleaders in this group.

The first rule makes sure nobody can speak or enter the Raid channel. The second rule lifts this restriction from anyone in the raidleaders group as well as giving them broad permissions. The third rule makes sure groupleaders can link and speak to the raid channel, and the fourth gives them permission to link from the subchannel as well as get rid of troublesome players.

Normal players will not be able to join the raid channel, but as that denial only applied in the raid channel they can join any subchannel they wish. When the channels are linked, everyone in the linked channels will hear raid leaders and group leaders. However, raid leaders will only hear group leaders, they will not hear normal players. This way, players can stay quiet when they hear a command coming down (and also hear the command direct without the groupleader having to repeat it), and if they don't that won't bother the rest of the raid.